TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93TT2177> <title> Sep. 06, 1993: The Week:August 22-28, 1993 </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993 Sep. 06, 1993 Boom Time In The Rockies </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> THE WEEK, Page 9 NEWS DIGEST: AUGUST 22-28 </hdr> <body> NATION Bringing in the Sheik Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman has finally been indicted for conspiring with 14 of his followers to wage what prosecutors last week called a "war of urban terrorism." The group allegedly orchestrated February's World Trade Center bombing and plotted to attack other New York City landmarks. Though at first the radical cleric could not be directly linked to the acts, a federal grand jury indicted him under a seldom-used sedition law. Sanctions Against China The U.S. prohibited the sale of nearly $1 billion in high-technology goods by American firms to China over the next two years as punishment for China's violations of international arms-control agreements. After months of deliberating by intelligence officials, the U.S. found that China had indeed sold sensitive missile technology to Pakistan, a charge that Beijing had repeatedly denied. Elite U.S. Troops to Somalia President Clinton dispatched 400 of the Army's elite Rangers to Somalia, beefing up the U.S. presence there following a series of attacks on American troops that killed four. Defense Secretary Les Aspin said U.S. forces will stay until the Somali capital is calm, rebel leaders give up their heavy weapons, and a national police force is in place. Dad Was an SS Man Newly discovered documents reveal that the father of General John Shalikashvili served in a Nazi Waffen SS unit. Shalikashvili, nominated by President Clinton to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not comment on the information; a White House spokeswoman said it was "not relevant." Wetlands Compromise In familiar fashion, the Clinton Administration has devised a split-the-difference plan--this one dealing with the nation's wetlands--that has something to please and displease everyone. The policy will protect all of Alaska's more than 100 million acres of marshes, riverbanks and the like and close loopholes that would have let developers build in otherwise protected areas. But the compromise will also permit farmers who filled in their wetlands before 1985 to keep working their land. Detroit Officers Found Guilty Former police officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn were convicted of second-degree murder last week in the fatal beating of motorist Malice Green. The ex-officers are white; Green was black. Denny Recounts His Tale White truck driver Reginald Denny took the stand last week in the trial of the black men accused of dragging him from his truck at a Los Angeles intersection and beating him almost to death. Because of his injuries, Denny says, he remembers nothing of the actual beating. Trade-Pact Rebellion Defying President Clinton, David Bonior, third-ranking Democrat in the House, said he would use his majority whip's office to organize opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which would eliminate tariff barriers between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Democrats are already badly split on the pact. Marching for King's Dream Attorney General Janet Reno linked arms with the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Coretta Scott King appeared with her four children; and tens of thousands took to the streets of Washington last Saturday in commemoration of Martin Luther King's historic march 30 years ago. Said n.a.a.c.p. executive director Ben Chavis: "The color of your skin still limits your chances in society. Dr. King's dream still remains unfulfilled." WORLD Aid Convoy Reaches Muslims A U.N. convoy carrying 175 tons of food and medicine reached the besieged Muslim quarter of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina after being held up by Croats. But for three days the trucks were prevented from leaving the town by frantic Muslims, who feared a Croat attack should the convoy depart. U.S. airdrops added to the relief effort for the city's 55,000 Muslims, cut off for two months by a Croat blockade. Israel Mulls a Giveback Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres suggested that Israel and the Palestinians were near agreement on a plan for limited Palestinian autonomy in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho. The arrangement would include the withdrawal of Israeli troops from population centers in those two places. Peres says he is hoping for "a breakthrough" during the round of peace talks that begins this week. Nicaraguan Hostages Freed More than 70 hostages were released in Nicaragua after being held by two rival groups for nearly a week, ending a tragicomic crisis that raised fears of a new civil war. Shortly after former anticommunist contra guerrillas freed some 38 members of a peace commission, a group of former Sandinista soldiers let go 34 politicians they had seized, including the Vice President. Both sets of captors were virtually guaranteed immunity from prosecution as well as consideration of their demands for land, loans and other aid. Nigerian Steps Aside Nigeria's President and military commander General Ibrahim Babangida turned over power to a mostly civilian interim government, ending his eight-year rule. The new head of government is Ernest Shonekan, 57, a businessman and lawyer who chaired the transitional council created in January to return the country to democracy. Most members of the interim government have close ties to Babangida, and many believe he will continue to rule behind the scenes. Japanese Mea Culpas In his first major policy speech since his election Aug. 6, Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa promised a fundamental restructuring of the country's political system and pledged to reduce Japan's trade surplus. He also apologized for Japanese aggression during World War II. Russian Mea Culpa Russian President Boris Yeltsin, visiting Poland's Katyn Forest, paid tribute to the more than 4,000 Polish officers massacred there by Soviet secret police in 1940. Moscow owned up to the atrocity only in 1990. Iraqi Envoys Seek Asylum Two Iraqi ambassadors sought asylum in Britain, protesting what they called the "reign of terror and misery" of Saddam Hussein. Both Hamed Al-Jubouri, who retired two weeks ago as ambassador to Tunisia, and Hisham Al-Shawi, ambassador to Canada, also joined the Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella organization of anti-Saddam groups. Billion-Dinar Bank Note Yugoslavia's national bank announced it would issue a 1 billion-dinar note in an effort to keep pace with the country's inflation, estimated at roughly 20% a day. The new note is worth about $3. BUSINESS Health-Care Fraud Showing a new zeal for cracking down on health-care fraud, government agents raided the offices of National Medical Enterprises, one of the U.S.'s largest operators of hospitals, and subpoenaed Medicare and Medicaid billing records of at least half a dozen of the country's largest blood-testing-laboratory owners. New, Improved Nintendo Nintendo and Silicon Graphics unveiled plans to market a virtual-reality game that would allow players to enter and manipulate a 3-D world. The companies hope to sell the product, called Project Reality, first to arcades in malls, then to consumers at a price under $250. Atari, one of Nintendo's competitors, has a similar game it plans to introduce later this year. Cable Companies' Defeat Telephone companies may send TV programming over their lines, says a federal court in Virginia in response to a lawsuit brought by Bell Atlantic. The decision overturns a U.S. law on constitutional grounds and opens up the possibility of an all-out war between local phone and cable companies as the Baby Bells move to start their own cable-TV systems. Cable Companies' Victory The four broadcast TV networks failed yet again to show cable who's boss when they backed down from their demand that cable systems pay the networks to carry their programs. A new federal law gave networks the right to demand compensation, but the cable companies refused to pay cash, threatening to drop the network shows entirely. Instead the four networks got the cable companies to agree to carry the new cable channels they each propose to launch. Financial Markets in Paradise Mortgage rates reached their lowest levels since 1968, and 30-year Treasury bonds fell to 6.08%. The Dow Jones industrial average continued to make record highs. SCIENCE NASA Loses Another One The billion-dollar Mars Observer was supposed to map the Red Planet's surface from space and study its climate as it prepared the way for a series of future landings, including at some point a human mission. But just as the space probe was about to go into Mars orbit, nasa lost communication with it, rendering the satellite useless. Engineers suspect faulty transistors on Observer are to blame. Ozone Optimism Thanks to rapid international action, the amount of ozone-eating chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere is dropping faster than anyone expected; the chemicals should peak around the year 2000, then decline. On the other hand, unfortunately, the chemicals are currently destroying ozone faster than anyone expected. MEDIA & THE ARTS More Blues for NYPD Blue Sixteen abc affiliates have declared Steven Bochco's latest prime-time series, NYPD Blue, too blue for their airwaves, and are refusing to carry it. The police show has attracted attention because of its violent and sexually explicit content. Cold Country, Hot Film Jurassic Park is heating up screens in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik. It drew 31,964 people in 10 days. That's 32% of the city's population and 12% of all Icelanders. -- By Christopher John Farley, Michael D. Lemonick, Eric A. Meers, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders, Sophfronia Scott Gregory Paying Protection Money Government tariffs, subsidies and quotas protect jobs and incomes--but at a price to the American consumer. In fact, in some industries the yearly cost of saving a job through protectionism is much more than the jobs actually pay. Here are some examples: INDUSTRY COST OF PROTECTION (per job saved) specialty steel.... ........ ........ ....$1 million color TVs.... ........ ........ ........ ..$420,000 ceramic tiles.... ........ ........ ......$135,000 clothing.... ........ ........ ........ ...$36,000-$82,000 agriculture.... ........ ........ ........ $20,000 (per farmer) dairy.... ........ ........ ........ ......$1,800 (per cow) Source: GATT "Say `Good Night,' Paul." "Good Night, Paul." NBC has recently threatened legal action if David Letterman takes some of the comedy bits he made famous on his NBC show and uses them on his new late-night show on CBS. NBC has made a fuss with CBS over this sort of thing before. "George [Burns] and Gracie [Allen], still working for CBS, were involved in a running gag about Gracie's `missing brother' George Allen...In working out their opening exchange [for a guest appearance on Rudy Vallee's radio show on NBC in the 1930s], all hands agreed it might begin with Rudy saying, `Hello, Gracie, have you found George yet?' Scripts were prepared accordingly. NBC in a last-minute ruling, decreed otherwise. The missing brother gag, NBC held, was a CBS promotion and nuts to a rival network promoting itself over NBC facilities. The script would have to be rewritten, the missing brother crack thrown out."--New York Daily News, May 6, 1958. WINNERS & LOSERS WINNERS VERNON JORDAN Vineyard omnipresence: birthday, golf course, Jackie cruise... KYM WORTHY D.A. gets murder verdict for white Detroit cops who beat black HAITI With democracy on track, U.N. lifts crippling trade embargo LOSERS KENNETH LAKEBERG Siamese twins' dad binges on coke, maybe with donated funds JOHN SHANNON Army's Acting Secretary accused of shoplifting a blouse and skirt MARK WILLS Master car thief profiled in Time (Aug. 16) nabbed by the FBI Informed Sources The Secret Thailand-Khmer Rouge Connection PHNOM PENH--The Thai military is secretly supporting the Cambodian KHMER ROUGE, the party responsible for the massacre of more than 1 million Cambodians when it ran the country during the 1970s. Officials with the United Nations Transitional authority in Cambodia say 400 Khmer Rouge guerrillas, fleeing an offensive by the Cambodian army, were evacuated by Thai army trucks and driven through Thai territory to a Khmer Rouge base. UNTAC officials wanted to announce their discovery but were overruled by officials at the U.N. headquarters in New York City who didn't want an open dispute with Thailand. The CIA's Work Is Never Done WASHINGTON--A book to be published in Moscow this month, Once a Spy by VADIM KIRPICHENKO, a former deputy head of foreign espionage for the KGB, predicts that U.S. agents will try to recruit citizens of the former Soviet republics to spy on one another and that therefore American intelligence activities in the former Soviet Union will actually increase despite the end of the cold war. Kirpichenko also says the KGB knew in advance about the invasion of the Suez by England, France and Israel in 1956 and the Egyptian surprise attack on the Suez Canal that began the 1973 October War. Historian-writer Allen Weinstein (Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case) is the book's co-author. Congress vs. Rush? WASHINGTON--The little-noticed Fairness in Broadcasting Act, which would give the FCC's moribund Fairness Doctrine the force of law and require TV and radio stations to provide a balance of polticial opiions, has passed the Senate and been sent to the House. Some fans of RUSH LIMBAUGH believe the bill is intended to sap the power of the conservative commentator, but a spokesman for Congressman John Dingell says this isn't so: "The world does not revolve around Limbaugh, although he's large enough." Health Report THE GOOD NEWS A new blood test to detect prostate cancer in its very earliest stages works far better than old-fashioned, unpleasant rectal examinations. In a recent study the newer method, called a prostate-specific antigen test, detected almost twice as many tumors as a manual exam. When a mother has Rh-negative blood and her fetus has Rh-positive (thanks to the father), the baby can actually be allergic to the mother, with health problems ranging from anemia to death. But a test that uses biotechnology to detect key proteins in the tiniest samples of blood can now determine the child's Rh status in the first trimester rather than the third, and allow for the earliest possible treatment. THE BAD NEWS An expensive, much prescribed blood test that detects the recurrence of colorectal cancer in people who have had surgery for the disease actually makes little difference in medium-term survival. Those who don't undergo the test are almost as healthy a year after surgery a those who do. Blacks of both sexes and all ages suffer cardiac arrest at rates significantly higher than their white counterparts, according to a new study. Not only that: when the heart stoppage occurs outside a hospital, blacks survive the episode only one-third as often as whites. Another study indicates that whites are more than twice as likely to have expensive bypass surgery as blacks. Source: GOOD: Journal of the American Medical Association (first), New England Journal of Medicine (second); BAD: J.A.M.A. (first), N.E.J.M. (second) THE 10 MOST PREDICTABLE GUESTS ON JERRY LEWIS' LABOR DAY WEEKEND TELETHON 1 TONY ORLANDO 2 WAYNE NEWTON 3 JOHN DAVIDSON 4 JACK JONES 5 NORM CROSBY 6 FREDDIE ROMAN 7 CASEY KASEM 8 THE OSMOND BROTHERS 9 HOWIE MANDEL 10 LEEZA GIBBONS </body> </article> </text>